An Englishman's (a man's) home is his castle

Posted by Lewis on June 14, 2004

In Reply to: An Englishman's (a man's) home is his castle posted by Bob on June 14, 2004

: : I was most interested to read in this item the fact that Sir Edward Coke lived between 1552 and 1634 and he is quoted as saying "For a man's house is his castle..." in the year 1644, ten years after he died. Something has gone wrong somewhere. Your comments please.

: It took them 10 years to break down his door?

Perhaps because he did not coin it or repeat it famously? 1634 was indeed Coke's death year and there are pages of interesting legal maxims from Coke on the web. "A man's home is his castle" or variants do not appear in the pages I found.

Coke was a champion of 'the common law' i.e. judge-made law and he was one of the most important legal figures in the common-law jusrisdctions, but he did not appear to originate that particular phrase.

• An Englishman's (a man's) home is his castle ESC 14/June/04